10. Spain

Gaming was legalized in Spain in only 1977 and gambling of pure chance (slot machines) was legalized in 1981. Spaniards love to bet on everything from football to cards to the lottery.

Spain’s Christmas lottery called "El Gordo", or the Fat One, is the only lottery draw in the world to award more than $1 billion in prizes. Last year, an estimated four in five Spaniards bought this lottery ticket, even at a price tag of 200 euros ($286).

Lottery-crazy Spaniards helped Loterías y Apuestas del Estado, the organizer of the draw, to earn just under 10 billion euros ($14.4 billion) in revenue last year.

Faced with a mounting fiscal deficit, the Spanish government plans to sell 30 percent of the company and raise up to 7.5 billion euros ($10.8 billion) in the second half of 2011.